Episode 465 || Into the Backlist, Vol. 2
This week on From the Front Porch, we have a new episode series: Into the Backlist! Today, Annie changes her focus from new releases to dive into the backlist: the books that came out years ago, the books that didn’t get enough attention, the books you may stumble upon while browsing in an indie bookstore like The Bookshelf.
To purchase the books mentioned in this episode, visit our website (type “Episode 465” into the search bar and tap enter to find the books mentioned in this episode) or or download and shop on The Bookshelf’s official app:
The Ensemble by Aja Gabel
The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer
Astonish Me by Maggie Shipstead (unavailable to order)
The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach
Musical Chairs by Amy Poeppel
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
From the Front Porch is a weekly podcast production of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in South Georgia. You can follow The Bookshelf’s daily happenings on Instagram at @bookshelftville, and all the books from today’s episode can be purchased online through our store website, www.bookshelfthomasville.com.
A full transcript of today’s episode can be found below.
Special thanks to Dylan and his team at Studio D Podcast Production for sound and editing and for our theme music, which sets the perfect warm and friendly tone for our Thursday conversations.
This week, Annie is listening to Interesting Facts about Space by Emily Austin.
If you liked what you heard in today’s episode, tell us by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. Or, if you’re so inclined, support us on Patreon, where you can hear our staff’s weekly New Release Tuesday conversations, read full book reviews in our monthly Shelf Life newsletter and follow along as Hunter and I conquer a classic. Just go to patreon.com/fromthefrontporch.
We’re so grateful for you, and we look forward to meeting back here next week.
Our Executive Producers are...Ashley Ferrell, Cammy Tidwell, Chanta Combs, Chantalle C, Kate O’Connell, Kristin May, Laurie Johnson, Linda Lee Drozt, Martha, Nicole Marsee, Stacy Laue, Stephanie Dean, Susan Hulings, and Wendi Jenkins.
Transcript:
[squeaky porch swing] Welcome to From the Front Porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business, and life in the South. [music plays out]
“I think that's what happens when you love people more, or more people. In here gets bigger.' Daniel tapped his hand on his own bullish chest. 'But out there has to get a little smaller,' he said, sweeping his hand around the room.” - Aja Gabel, The Ensemble
[as music fades out] I’m Annie Jones, owner of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia, and this week, we’re launching a monthly podcast series we’re calling Into the Backlist. Before we get started, just a reminder that every month, our Patreon members join me for a Q&A session we’ve titled Porch Visits. We talk about books, small business, and life in the South, yes, and also behind-the-scenes Bookshelf happenings, nail polish colors, thoughts on various awards shows and pop culture happenings, and more. Patreon supporters just need to join at the $5 to have access to our monthly Zoom sessions; Porch Visits are held on the last Wednesday of every month, and they’re recorded so you can watch or listen later. Visit patreon.com/fromthefrontporch to support us at the $5 level.
[00:01:32] Now back to the show. Because From the Front Porch is a podcast very much wrapped up in the comings and goings of our indie bookstore, many of the books we feature are new-- or many times not-even-yet- released-- books, which means backlist titles, (books published more than a year ago) tend to get lost or overlooked. As I began to brainstorm podcast episodes for 2024, I got to thinking about the magic of indie bookstores and how we try to replicate that in-store magic for you, our long-distance customer and podcast listener. One of the most magical things to me about shopping in the indie bookstore is the serendipitous nature of it. How you might stumble upon a book you've never seen before and be inspired to read it or buy it because of an in-store recommendation, or simply because the book begs to be read from the shelf. Now, don't get me wrong, I get that serendipitous feeling from new titles. I do, all the time. But it seems to especially come from the unsung book, the book that's been out for a while, or the book only that particular indie bookstore seems to know about. This year I thought I would dig through the imaginary bookshelf vault-- not entirely unlike, I guess, the Disney Vault-- and highlight the backlist titles I think are special, books we keep on our shelves, even though they were published years ago. Books we secretly hope a customer stumbles upon, asks us about, and eventually takes home for themselves.
[00:02:55] Today, I'm talking about Aja Gabel's debut novel from 2018: The Ensemble. I'm drawn to stories about complicated, fully fleshed characters who are pulled into or even forced into relationship with one another. I think it's why I love bantry romcoms and dysfunctional family novels because, as Lorelai Gilmore says, "There's nothing like a family to screw up a family." The Ensemble, though, was my first memorable experience-- outside, perhaps of YA lit like the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants-- with a dysfunctional friendship story. Families, in my experience, are forced into loving each other by proximity and blood. But what makes friends choose each other over and over and over again? What makes a group of friends become like a family, loving and caring without and beyond blood. In The Ensemble, Gabel's characters, there are four, (Jana, Britt, Daniel and Henry) choose each other because of music. They are four young classical musicians who've kind of been forced together and now make up the Van Ness Quartet. And the reader watches as the quartet's ambition and talent pave the way from youthful obscurity into midlife success. This book is set in the 90s in 2000, but there's not really a nostalgia element here to me. It doesn't necessarily read like a 90s or 2000 book. I think that just happens to be when it's set. And it's divided into four distinct parts.
[00:04:28] What I loved about this book when I first read it is each part is introduced by a list of the classical pieces that the quartet is playing at that time in their careers. So I'll try to dig it up and maybe put a link in the show notes. But at the time the book released, Kate, (who I know I mentioned a lot here) she is the manager at Bookmarks, a bookstore in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She was our inventory coordinator and a bookseller at the Bookshelf for a long time-- or it felt like a long time, I guess. I don't know. The timeline blurs. But Kate was working toward her PhD in musicology while she worked at the Bookshelf. So she was pursuing her PhD at Florida State University, and we were lucky enough for her to come work for us at the Bookshelf. So at the time The Ensemble came out, I remember immediately reading it and then giving it to Kate, because I desperately wanted to know if it was a realistic portrayal of the classical music world. And as I recall, Kate thought that it was. And then Kate created a playlist on Spotify featuring all of the classical pieces that are mentioned in The Ensemble. So I'll see if I can dig that link up and we'll put it in the show notes. But that is kind of the set up of the book, is it's four parts. And it's not an exact science, but you are seeing these characters about every four years. And so in a book like this, I feel like what we typically get is one character's perspective, then another character's perspective for each four parts.
[00:05:51] Maybe Jana gets a part, Rick gets a part, Daniel gets a part, Henry gets a part. That is not how Aja Gabel set up the story. Instead, we get multiple voices and viewpoints in each part. The parts are really more chronological. So we meet them in the 90s, and then we go with them from college into midlife. And each section is set up by knowing what the quartet is playing at that given time in their careers. So you get each character's perspective in each of the four parts, which makes, I think, for a pretty original structure and a structure that really worked for me as a reader. In the book's opening pages, Gabel immediately introduces us to each member of The Ensemble. And in just a matter of moments, through what I think is a pretty genius setup, and in only a few paragraphs, we know who they are and even who they might become. I was thinking about this because I just listened not long ago to The Popcast do an episode talking about the Friends pilot episode. And one of the things they remarked was that those characters were exactly who they are and who they became from episode one. We immediately knew who Rachel was and she was the same throughout the series. I mean, yes, those characters grow and change, but they were really cemented in their personalities. And I think that's the case with the characters in Ensemble.
[00:07:12] And how Gabel introduces them is they're about to play a song. It's for an opportunity, I think, to go on to some kind of competition. And so they're about to play a piece, and the instructor or one of their professors tells them it's a love song like this. This music is love. And you watch each of the four characters respond to that sentiment. And so you immediately realize Jana is the group's leader. She's on first violin, and she is not cutthroat, but she's extremely ambitious. She'll kind of do whatever it takes. She is the cement that holds the group together. And she really bulks and kind of rolls her eyes at the idea that music is romantic in any way. Gabel describes Jana as, and I'm going to quote now, "She had always wanted to truly lead a group and better still, to lead a group to greatness. It had to happen. It would happen. Its future happening defined her." Jana feels like Paris Geller, like you just immediately know who she is. Brit is the second violinist. She's romantic and dreamy. She's searching for a place to belong. Her parents are deceased. When we first meet her, she's coming off of a breakup from Daniel. Daniel is the cellist. He's the oldest. He's a striver. He can be a little jealous of Henry. Henry is on Viola, and music has always really come easy for Henry. And so there's automatically kind of this competition set up between Daniel who really has to work really hard, and then Henry who does not or seems to not. Something you might immediately have guessed, is that The Ensemble is a character-driven book rather than a plot-driven one. The characters are rich and interesting, multifaceted, never flat, and the book does watch them each grow up and into themselves, both as individual people and as a group of ensemble musicians.
[00:09:08] There is plot here, and interesting things happen. The book opens-- no spoilers, but the book opens with Jana choosing to sleep with a judge in order to ensure The Ensemble slots in an upcoming music festival. So definitely things happen, plot happens, but it is mostly a coming of age story for grown ups, and it is about classical music without being about classical music. This is one of my favorite genres. We'll discuss this a little bit later when I talk about comp titles and books I put this on a shelf with. But I love a book, the one that most recently comes to mind is Dixon Descending, which released this month. And that book is about Mount Everest. But it's not really about Mount Everest, it's about the brothers who attempt to climb it. But it sent me on a kind of deep dive into Everest and into climbing culture. This book will make you appreciate the work that goes into classical music. It'll also give you, I think, an appreciation for classical music, which is something that has maybe drifted from relevance in pop culture. And so, anyway, as somebody who really appreciates attending classical music events or listening to classical music, particularly live, I really did love this book. But I don't know a lot about classical music, and so you can love and appreciate the dynamics of this book without being obsessed with classical music yourself. And although I've really set this book up as a book about friendship, and I've described these four characters as a group of friends, really, their colleagues too.
[00:10:33] So it's like The Big Chill. If those friends also worked alongside each other night after night toward a common goal. And that's really where a lot of the complications come from in this book, because they're each other's pillars and they're in deep relationship with each other personally, but they're also deeply intertwined in each other's work and success. The Ensemble only works with all of them. And so what do you do with your ambition and your work ethic and your talent? What happens to your other relationships? Meaning what happens if Jana or Brit or Daniel or Henry falls in love with someone who's outside the walls of The Ensemble? What happens to their familial relationships? What over the years do you prioritize? What comes first when you start to grow up and when you start to enter romantic partnerships, or you start to think about having children, what becomes a priority? Because you're not just a solo artist, you're somebody whose work is dependent upon the others, and your success is their success and vice versa. So these are the questions Gabel is answering with The Ensemble, and I was just blown away by it. I think it's incredibly well written. I've revisited snippets and chapters when I was researching this episode, and it was such a treat because I immediately got swept back up into that world. Jordan and I just finished watching the Netflix documentary American Symphony about John Baptiste. And so that, I think, also had something to do with why I wanted to feature this book this month.
[00:12:00] Okay, so some stats for you. This book released back in May 15th, 2018. Clocking in at 352 pages. It never felt that long to me. But this is a quiet book. So if quiet, character-driven books are not your thing, this book might not be for you. I also think it's interesting that we have not gotten another book from Aja Gabel, and I really would like one. I doubt she is listening to this podcast, but I thought this book was so compelling. I do believe, based on some cursory research, that Aja is busy writing for other publications and other entities maybe even in the media landscape. But, man, I would love another book by her because I just loved this one so very much. Okay. Critics consensus. I always think this is super interesting because in my bookselling life, for years, I have just assumed that if a book gets a starred review in Kirkus or Publisher Weekly, that means it is worth my time. Sometimes when I'm trying to read for Shelf Subscriptions or when I have a lot to read, I never read the full review because I don't want to be spoiled, but I'll look to see if it got a starred review or not to kind of whittle down my stack, if that makes sense. So I really trust Kirkus. I trust Publishers Weekly, but it's been very interesting in doing this backlist exercise to see that we have not always seen eye to eye.
[00:13:15] So Kirkus felt meh about this book. In fact, this is the quote, "Not much ever happens, but what little does is analyze in microscopic detail via page after page of exposition. For example, Brit and Jana share a comforting embrace." This is from the book, "It occurred to Janna, perhaps for the first time, why men loved Brit, why people loved Brit. She was able, in a way that most people weren't, to give and receive goodwill. In Jana's whole life, she could not recall ever having been hugged like this. This one was all encompassing compassion. Brit was an equal planet to Jana, and the two of them were temporarily merging, gravities combining." Kirkus says, "So much effort to make this unimportant moment important and to so little effect. On and on it goes. Sometimes it feels as if one is reading the author's notes for the book rather than the book itself." Well, that's a burn. But even just reading that, I loved it. I immediately knew why Aja Gable would include it. It lets us know so much about who Jana is, who Brit is. I also think it's a deeply beautiful portrayal of a hook. If that is your vibe, this book will be for you. It was not the Kirkus reviewers vibe, and that's fine. Always, always remember that books are so subjective. And so what works for you as a reader may not work for me, and what works for me may not work for you. I love that passage. And I also think the Kirkus-- I always think reviewers.
[00:14:39] It's so fun to read their various burns. But that section of the book really worked for me, and I really actually like the exposition and how much time Aja Gabel devotes to each of these characters. It did receive a star review in Publisher Weekly. Publishers Weekly said, "Seldom has a novel managed to better dramatize the particular pressures that make up the life of a professional musician, from the physical pain of contorting limbs over a long period of time, to the emotional stress of constantly making adjustments to the changing temperaments of partners. Readers will come away with a renewed appreciation for things people usually take for granted when listening to music." I thought of this because late last fall I read a romantic comedy recommended to me by my friend Kimberly. It was called Play for Me by Libby Hubscher. It's set at a prep school in New England, and one of the characters is a classically trained pianist. And in the book, he wears gloves to protect his hands. He is really persnickety and careful about what he touches and what he does with his hands. And there's some conflict with the characters, because there's a young student who is both good at baseball and a really wonderful musician. And so there's a conflict of what will his body be used for? And I'd never really considered music an athletic enterprise or something that really requires your full body. But if you watch musicians, if you attend symphonies or things like that, you will see that their whole body is really built and moved and curved around the instrument that they play, and they really become one with their instrument. And I know that sounds cheesy, but that's what it appears from the audience.
[00:16:21] And the way Aja Gabel describes what these characters sacrifice in terms of their body and the work and effort that goes into playing this music, I think, is really well handled. I remember when I very first read the book wondering if Aja Gabel was a classical musician herself, because she just felt like she really fully understood the musician's plight and purpose. I loved those parts of the book, and I was glad Publishers Weekly highlighted it as well. I talked a lot about this book. If you're a longtime podcast listener (and I mean very long because we are on episode 465 of this podcast) back in episode 156 of From the Front Porch-- can you guys believe? I don't know, when we hit 500, what should we do? Should we quit? It's just we've been on the air a long time. I say on the air as if I'm in a radio, as if I'm on NPR. Anyway, I talked about this book. I first reviewed it. I listened to myself. I sound, I think, so different. But back on episode 156 From the Front Porch. And then I also was featured on an episode of What Should I Read Next with Ann Bogle. I believe it's episode 132 where I highlight my love for The Ensemble. So this is not one of those books that slowly grew on me. This is a book I loved from the moment I read it, and it's also a book that I'm not quite sure why it hasn't continued in popularity-- I mean, it's a book that we stock on the shelves-- because to me it's a friendship book. It's a colleague book. It's a book about work. It's a book about music. It's a book that's like what happens after the campus novel.
[00:17:54] If you like the campus novel, you should really love a book like this because it shows you what happens after your lives are built together and around each other. And for these characters, they don't just graduate and move on from one another, move beyond one another, they are attached to one another professionally. And I think that's so unusual and such an unusual relationship. And so I think readers of the campus novel would really appreciate and enjoy this book. This book found its way to a lot of places in the summer of 2018. I recall commenting on Riverhead marketing and what a good job they must have done. It was featured in People Magazine, Goop. Celebrities were paying attention to it. So you may have seen this one. It's got a really striking bright yellow cover. It is rated 3.48 on Goodreads. I never know what to do with Goodreads ratings, but maybe you do. So there is the Goodreads ratings. And that was the consensus of reviewers. My one-sentence-hand-sell, is a group of ambitious musicians tries to make it in the world of classical music without ruining their relationships and each other's lives. At The Bookshelf, I would put this on an in-cap or on a shelf with the Interestings by Meg Wolitzer. That is another book about friendship and friendship that starts one place and grows up and into adulthood. It's also about a group of people who are very concerned, obsessed with, interested in art and artistry. I'd also put it on the shelf with Astonish Me by Maggie Shipstead and the Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach.
[00:19:28] The reason I would put it on the shelf with those two books is because Astonish Me is a book about ballet without being about ballet. And the Art of Fielding is a book about baseball without being about baseball. I hope you know what I mean when I talk about these books. These are books that are deeply interested in their subject matter. I could tell Maggie Shipstead, understood or had researched ballet. I could tell Chad Harbach understood baseball. But the book is about so much more than the sport or artistry itself. And so that's what I mean when I say the book is about classical music, but it's also really not about classical music. I also think it would make the perfect pairing, and this is why I like revisiting these books, because this book released in 2018. But it turns out it would pair beautifully and make such a fun read-alongside with Musical Chairs by Amy Poeppel which is also a book about an ensemble group of musicians. Or at least it is partly about some ensemble musicians. And when The Ensemble first released, Musical Chairs maybe it was barely a thought in Amy Poeppel's brain. And so now this is one thing I just love about literature, is that those two books, I think, would really talk to each other and speak to each other so well. So I would definitely include musical chairs on that shelf. And then I think I would also include Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin.
[00:20:44] Part of the reason I would include that book is, once again, when I have hand sold that book-- although that book barely required hand selling-- it was so popular when it released. But it is a book about video games, but it's not at all about video games. It's a book about ambition and relationships and friendship and how ambition can get in the way of those things. And that is exactly what The Ensemble is about. So at The Bookshelf, I would put this on an in-cap with the Interestings, Astonish Me, the Art of Fielding, Musical Chairs and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. So if you liked The Ensemble but you've never read those, there's a book list for you. And then if you like some of the books I just mentioned, then I think you will really love and enjoy The Ensemble. Okay, my favorite quote. Now, I started the episode with one of my favorite quotes. But part of the reason I loved this book was the writing is so great and there are so many quotes to choose from. When I flipped through my copy, I had marked several. I had torn little pages throughout this book, but I'm going to read from page 169 in my book, and I'm going to read you this paragraph because I just think it's a really lovely example of what's happening in this book. "He couldn't quite see it, but Jana cleared her throat and he began. And six and a half bars in, he would always remember this. Six and a half bars. He realized what she had been mouthing. Love you. Not as a confession, not as an insult, not as a proclamation, but as a fact. I love you even when you are your worst self. Even if it's you who takes this competition win away from us. I love you because we all love each other because we have to. It's in some contract somewhere that no one ever saw or signed, a lived contract. I love you because if I don't, there's nothing. Empty chairs, a dead man, fluttering paper music."
[00:22:34] Y'all, this book is so good. This book is so good. I really hope you are encouraged to pick this one up. Here's why you should read this book. If you liked that paragraph, first of all, you should read this book. But if you like deep diving into a world you don't know (baseball, ballet, Everest) but you want to read fiction instead of nonfiction, you should read this if you like relationship books rather than plot heavy ones. And this is perhaps a recommendation out of left field. That's what I was reaching for, a baseball reference. But I think if you liked Daisy Jones and the Six but you want to make it slightly more literary, I think you should try this. And I hesitate to say that I didn't include it on the shelf. I was trying to limit myself to five titles, but really, Daisy Jones is a book-- I mean, it's told in oral history format, but it is a book about ambitious musicians who have been thrown together, and their success is dependent upon each other. Like it only works with all of them. And I think about my favorites. I think about the Beatles. I think about watching that documentary and just knowing that as talented and as genius as those men were, they only worked together. And what happens when you know that your career is so bound up in other people and that if one of you quits or if something happens to someone, your career is done. You might be like Paul McCartney and go on and have a successful career. But that is rare. That's really rare. And so Daisy Jones, I think, does a good job of talking about that, talking about that reality, but certainly from a more plot-driven talkie space; whereas, I think The Ensemble approaches those issues and those plights from a really emotional, introspective place. So if you like Daisy Jones, but you want to make it introspective and literary, I think you should read this book.
[00:24:34] And that is this episode of Into the Blacklist. I hope you are enjoying this series. I am having so much fun picking books off my shelf and kind of analyzing them and trying to figure out if they're good to feature on these episodes. So I hope this series is fun for you. It is fun for me. It's fun to look back and go into the back list, and I hope you're enjoying it as well. That was Into the Backlist, featuring Aja Gabels 2018 novel, The Ensemble.
[00:25:01] This week I'm listening to Interesting Facts About Space by Emily Austin.
Annie Jones: From the Front Porch is a weekly podcast production of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in Thomasville, Georgia. You can follow The Bookshelf’s daily happenings on Instagram at @bookshelftville, and all the books from today’s episode can be purchased online through our store website: bookshelfthomasville.com A full transcript of today’s episode can be found at:
Special thanks to Studio D Podcast Production for production of From the Front Porch and for our theme music, which sets the perfect warm and friendly tone for our Thursday conversations.
Our Executive Producers of today’s episode are…
Cammy Tidwell, Chantalle Carl, Kate O'Connell, Kristin May, Linda Lee Drozt, Martha, Stacy Laue, Chanta Combs, Stephanie Dean, Ashley Ferrell
Executive Producers (Read Their Own Names): Nicole Marsee, Wendi Jenkins, Laurie Johnson, Susan Hulings Annie Jones: If you’d like to support From the Front Porch, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Your input helps us make the show even better and reach new listeners. All you have to do is open up the Podcast App on your phone, look for From the Front Porch, scroll down until you see ‘Write a Review’ and tell us what you think. Or, if you’re so inclined, support us over on Patreon, where we have 3 levels of support - Front Porch Friends, Book Club Companions, and Bookshelf Benefactors. Each level has an amazing number of benefits like bonus content, access to live events, discounts, and giveaways. Just go to: patreon.com/fromthefrontporch We’re so grateful for you, and we look forward to meeting back here next week.